The maze
by xdrop-of-golden-sunx
Summary: When the cullen's get involved in a mysterius off-road car crash and find themselves stumbling into a labyrinth that will never let them get out alive... Bella is a vamp, but never had Renesmee.
1. Chapter 1

**The maze **

Preference

_It started with eight vampires. _

_But eight was all it took to over-throw the forbidden evil that lay in the connecting paths. _

_The problem is; which ones' survived?_

_No one could tell._

_No one at all could tell me one single thing about that maze. _

_But you, my dear reader, can you?_

**Chapter one**

All of the Cullen Vampires were on the road back from Alaska and speeding onward to Forks, Washington. The drizzle on the windscreen was proof that they had reached the border to Washington.

The pixie-like Vampire, sitting in the back seat of a yellow Porsche, wears a pout on her perfect features.

"Why does it have to rain on the very day I plan to make you over?" She whines. The long-haired brunette giggles like chiming bells.

"Alice, I'm sure the mall can wait another day to have you buy all the stock!" She spoke. Then addresses the stunning girl driving, who muttered something intelligible "What was that Rose?"

"Nothing Bella," Rosalie Hale muttered, sneaking a glance at her husband driving the yellow Jeep behind them.

"Eyes on the road!" Alice scolds. Rose scowls and turns her honey-coloured eyes back to the meandering bend curving lazily across the horizon. Green moorland goes out behind them and Bella wondered idly, whether it was worth going back to Forks at all.

Suddenly the state-of-the-art Porsche swerves to one side slightly and Alice frowns. "I knew I shouldn't have let you drive." She mumbled. The car swerves again.

"Alice, I swear I didn't do that voluntary." speaks Rose very seriously. She wrestles with the leather steering wheel and they skid off the track and crash into a twisted old tree.

Of course, none of them are hurt, but the car has been inverted, it's pipes at abnormal angles.

The Jeep stops beside them and an attractive gang of male vampires clamber out. The bronze haired rushed to Bella's side, helping to wrench the twisted metal out of the way. "Thanks Edward." She said and is rewarded with a dazzling, crooked smile.

Alice's tiny frame shows sadness and grief of her beloved Porsche. "It's Okay Alice." Sooths a curly-haired blonde, "we'll get you another one."

With all of them out of the car, they look at one another, every single mind considering the possibilities of getting out of the wood they had appeared to have driven into.

"Can you do anything to get it fixed Rose?" questions Emmett, his big arm wrapped around her shoulders.

She shook her head, "Sorry Alice, but I think that's it's been under too much damage to be repaired." Rose answered gravely. Alice moans and rests her head on Jasper's shoulder.

"What do we do now then?" asked Edward to no-one in particular.

Emmett and Rosalie look at each other's eyes and silently know that everyone will have to stay here because they can't risk being exposed by their sparkling pale skin or the fact that they would be speeding through the undergrowth at 100mph.

"Everybody." said Emmett, "I think we'll have to camp out until day break, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves." he said, voicing the thought he and Rose had shared. Alice stamped down her tiny foot in frustration.

"Why? My hair will get ruined and I have no make-up with me" she whinged in a high soprano voice. As no-one else complained or made any sound of discontentment, he continued, "We'll just have to sit here and take it in turn to hunt." he paused, "especially you Jasper." He noticed his coal black eyes.

Jasper shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other; he was uneasy about being the weakest of the group. "We may as well get comfortable." pondered Bella, who sat down on the mossy bank.

Alice takes Jasper's cold hand and says, "Me and Jazz are going to hunt." She bounds away with amazing grace. She moves her tiny body in and out of the undergrowth like a gazelle running from a lion and almost at once catches the scent of something strange, like blood, fresh cream and another thing that she couldn't just put a finger on it.

Jasper had smelt it too and comes over to join her. "What do you think it is?" He asks her. Alice shook her head. She wasn't being truthful; she recognised it from her past, like death, blood and sweat. Jasper felt that, but he didn't push her to explain.

"Let's get back to hunting." She decided, plastering a fake smile on her face and a few deer and a coyote later they headed back to the others.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After Alice and Jasper had fled the scene, Bella lay back in the soft, emerald grass. She began to wonder whether her transformation into a vampire had affected Edward deeper than she thought. She watched him now.

He was looking at an apple tree, watching the fruit sway in the promise of a breeze that he couldn't feel. He wanted so much to taste just one of the apples that appeared golden in the sunlight.

Bella looked on silently, pondering if this had been the right choice.

Little did she know that there was an inscription above her head;

_In our beds did we sleep  
While in our broken lands did mothers keep  
The chaos and the pain  
Blood pouring everywhere like rain  
Common for a sister became rape  
The child born free of sin  
Rewarded with gun rattle  
Piercing through fathers head  
Unaware he is dead  
Until girl is taken from her mothers' hand  
And she had now become sand  
And this is from those  
claiming to be humane  
and it's driving me insane.___**(That's a bit out of a Samina Malik's Poems; link will be on profile soon.)**

No, they didn't know what would become of them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

**READ THIS!!!!!  
A/N: before you start; they are going to enter the maze and some of you might get confused about it so let me explain. It is a very old maze so trees are growing in it as well as flowers and moss, etc. This maze neutralises all vampire powers and speed/strength. m'kay? **

"You're back!" Cried Rosalie gratefully; her onyx eyes spoke for themselves.

"You look worried." noted Bella to Alice.

"We smelt something odd back in the forest. Something I haven't smelt before." quivered Alice. She was afraid of the unknown, she had never told anyone that was her greatest fear, but now it was taking over.

"I'm really s-scared." She stuttered, Jasper hugged her and told her everything was going to be alright.

"I'm not a particular fan of this place either." said Bella. "It has a weird feeling about it."

"This is silly." shouted Emmett in despair. "Maybe, if everyone is so worried about this place, we should just go and check it out." He shrugged. Everyone nodded in approval.

So, one by one, they walked cautiously into the green foliage of the forest, abandoning the safety of the clearing and, like a child, naively blundering into the unknown.

After some time, they came to yet another apple tree. "Look at that." whispered Alice. The others looked at the tree in curiosity.

"What?" frowned Rose.

"That." She repeated, pointing to the bark.

"There's nothing there Alice." Esme said, gently.

"But I can see writing." Alice insisted. She was looking at the inscription on the bark that appeared plain as day to her.

"Well, what does it say?" asked Jasper, playing her game.

"_In our beds did we sleep  
While in our broken lands did mothers sleep  
The chaos and the pain  
Blood pouring everywhere like rain  
Common for a sister became rape  
The child born free of sin  
Rewarded with gun rattle  
Piercing through fathers head  
Unaware he is dead  
Until girl is taken from her mothers' hand  
And she had now become sand  
And this is from those  
claiming to be humane  
and it's driving me insane." _She read.

Emmett snorted, "That's sick Alice, there's nothing there."

Alice resisted the urge to say, "Your right, I made it up." because she could see the soft arcs of the letters in the elegant handwriting. She leaned forward to touch the wood and a vision sucked her in.

_She, Bella and Rose were franticly running. Running from what she did not know, but she could hear children's laughter and she smelt that smell in the forest; like blood, cream and death. They stop at a fountain, with a statue of a gargoyle spouting the clean water._

_But then, all of a sudden, the water turned a blood red..._

"Alice? Are you okay honey?" She heard Rose's familiar voice break through to her.

"You were screaming." said a worried Bella and the rest just looked on  
in the hope she might return to reality. Alice gingerly sat up and Jasper cuddled her tiny body. "It's over now." He soothed.

"What did you see?" asked Edward anxiously.

Alice quickly re-encountered the horrific vision that she had seen. Emmett and Jasper wore a mask of calmness before the storm, Rose and Bella looked incredibly scared and stayed completely still, despite the strong wind.

"I think we should leave." murmured Jasper, rubbing Alice's hand.

"I agree." said Emmett. The group moved slowly, a human pace, until they came to smell that odd scent again and Alice stiffened up.

"Is that it?" spoke Edward quietly and Jasper nodded. Everyone had to admit that the place was beautiful. It was almost as if they had stumbled upon an orchard or public garden. Fruit trees bend in the torrent of air, the grass was an emerald green, but the sky gave it away; it was a purple-black in colour and thunder was heard over head.

It seemed that there was nothing bad or indifferent about this grove. It almost appeared innocent. So they trekked on at a humane pace through, shrubbery, trees and wildflowers until they come to a hedge.

Yes, a hedge. Two hedges to be exact.

"What the-"Emmett began, but was quickly cut off by Alice.

"I think we should go down that path." she said, eagerly and skipped off down the narrow trail between the two, tall hedges. The rest looked at one another strangely and took off down the conduit after little Alice.

"Alice, Wait up!" called Rose and they all began to run at vampire speed to catch up with her and Jasper got in front of her

"Alice! Stop this, do you hear me?" he cried in desperation. Her golden eyes stared straight back at him, as if she hadn't heard a word, so Jasper continued.

"We all agree this place is a little strange, but there's no reason to act like everything is perfectly alright." but Mary Alice Brandon-Cullen looked past him onto the trail ahead.

"Damn it, listen to me!" Jasper yelled, but she still looked on adamantly, unwilling to meet his gaze.

"What can you see Alice?" asked Bella.

"Can't you see them?" she questioned with quiet monotone.

"See who? For God's sake, this is sick!" shouted Emmett and Rose put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"We should follow them." said Alice, cheerily, as if their conversation had never occurred and began once more skipping down the grassy path. Emmett made a motion to grab her but Jasper caught his hand. "You touch her and it's the last thing you ever do." he hissed.

They followed her tiny frame, through many trails until she stopped at a stone wall and none of them realized that they had become lost in the maze's dark labyrinth. She stopped and slumped against the cold stone and began crying uncontrollably.

"Oh Christ, what's wrong sweetheart?" Jasper asked her.

"They're gone." she sobbed.

"Who are gone?" enquired Rose.

"Cynthia and Mom." She wailed. Edward looked at Bella, knowing that her sister and mother had died a long, long time ago. The Cullen's talked in low, hushed voices.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but I do know that we are now lost." Edward said quietly. The rest looked round to find that three walls encircled them and instead of a forth wall, a path lead off in another direction.

"So what do we do?" asked Rosalie, who tossed her blonde hair out of her eyes.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting out of here!" cried Emmett, charging down the path.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

"Emmett, wait you idiot!" yelled Edward, running after him, realizing that he no longer could run at vampire speeds.

"Don't go Edward!" Shouted Bella, prepared to go after him, but Alice's wails were too much to leave behind, Isabella crawled down to sit by her. Her tiny structure, racked with sobbed.

Rosalie stared helpless at the path where her husband and brother had left, never feeling more vulnerable in her life. How was it that she came to depend on another man?

Jasper stood in the corner. Thinking about the strategies that he had come up as a soldier; so why couldn't he think of any now?

Alice sat against the wall, crying. Her mind a Lacrymosa of lost dreams, she reflected on why her mother and sister had just left her there. Did they not care?

Isabella comforted Alice as she cried, wondering how on this earth got to be in this mess. Edward had left her. Again. He had hurt her so badly, so what was so important that he had to do that once more?

These questions swam about the intelligent minds until Alice finally broke the silence.

"I don't know what's going on, but I do know that we have to find mom and Cynthia" and with a look of determination on her flawless face, she hopped up from the ground and took Rose's and Bella's hand.

No-one saw Jasper sneak off down the path that Edward had taken.

"I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do." she spoke gravely, and she reached into her and took out a double-edged steel knife, with a ruby engraved into an omega **(the last letter of the Greek alphabet)**.

Bella gasped, "Alice, why have you got this?"

"An emergency." she shrugged and in the time she said those words she thrust the dagger into the stone wall and a white misty-type substance began to leak from the crack.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Edward charged down the moss-encrusted track, unwavering to find his sibling. He found the broad shoulders of Emmett McCartney Cullen wilting against a gnarled oak tree.

"Emmett, what the hell were you thinking!?" exploded Edward, shaking him viciously. Emmett grabbed his arm and flung him into a hedge.

"If you hadn't dragged us to see Tanya and that lot we wouldn't be in this mess!" He yelled.

Edward backed against a stone wall, attempting to reason with Emmett, "I didn't force you to come; I gave you a choice!"

"YOU GUILTED US INTO IT!" He screamed. Both stopped and stared at one another, then looked away, ashamed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jasper Hale loped down paths of many kinds; mossy and ancient gravelled and looked brand new. He stopped at a cross-path, where mist was beginning to collect.

"_Jasper..." _a voice whispered. He turned around. Nothing. Back around. Still nothing. _"Jasper..." _It came again.

"Who is it?" More mist.

"Stay away from me!" He yelled.

"_Save me." _It echoed, taking on the voice of his wife.Without thinking, he bolted into the shadows and fog; it must be Alice in trouble, he thought. The pain was excruciating, the mist burned his pale skin and the voice chuckled,

"_Why so eager to help everyone?" _Jasper writhed in agony, but the voice was heard behind him now.

"_The little soldier who just wants to come home..." _He pulled through the pain and ran a few strides, before collapsing on his back, red spots appeared in his vision. Children's laughter echoed in his ears and he saw mutilated toddlers reaching out to him.

So lonely... So afraid...

The infants pressed their blood-stained hands onto this back, his stomach, his legs, until it all over came him and all became dark.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

**GUYS! Please review if you can spare a minute of you r busy lives!**

**Valerie-Claire**


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